Youth Theater---giving it a try again

You know how much mija enjoys ballet.

And God really blessed in order for her to be able to continue in the fall and do The Nutcracker, but because of my husband's continued unemployment, we decided to pull her out. We hope she doesn't need to be out too long, but she understands.

So, I received an email reminding me about auditions for a children's performing theater. 

Mija had performed in a play with them 3 years ago entitled, "The Marvelous Land of Oz." She was a munchkin.

She's grown so much in three years!

Anyway, hubby and I decided that being in "Charlotte's Web" through a virtually free children's theater program might be a good replacement for ballet for a few months.

So, Saturday we went to the auditions. Since she's 8 years old now, she was supposed to have a 1-2 minute monologue. I found the cute monologue about the tooth fairy. Of course, as soon as we left I started getting questions about when we would know something.

Well, she didn't get a part. Not surprising when over 70 kids audition for a play with only about 40 parts. It's okay. It was still a great practice on how to audition and having her first experience with a monologue.

Any other thespians out there?

The Nutcracker---Sights and Sounds.

Mija finished her Nutcracker performances this weekend and now we attempt to recover. 
I thought I would share some sights and sounds of our Friday and Saturday.

Friday Funny--Ballet

We're heading into Nutcracker overload, so I thought this would be perfect!

Source: buzzfeed.com via Betsy Price on Pinterest

Bun head--my newest way to make a ballet bun

Spring Recital 2012

Mija loves ballet and is working diligently on the upcoming Nutcracker. (She has two new parts in addition to one she's done the past two years.)

The biggest challenge is getting and keeping mija's hair in a bun. It's long but thin and fine. 

There have been two products that I found that finally kept her bun up and her hair back. One was  Big Sexy Hair Volumizing Hairspray
and the other were these Goody Spin Pins. I make a braid and then screw this in and tada, it's a bun.

Well, the other day, mija took her bun out before she got home and lost them.

Now I will admit that I love the "screws" but came across something on Pinterest (of course) that gave me something else to try which actually works.


First, you take an old sock and cut the toe off. Thankfully, I found one of those lonely-socks-which-has-lost-its-mate-in-the-dryer to use. Here's what it looked like when done.

You fold the sock over and put it over her pony tail...kind of like a scrunchie. 

Then you flip the hair over the sock making sure to cover all the sock.

After it's all covered, you slip a ponytail holder over the hair-covered sock.

The hair that is hanging out is twisted around and around the ponytail holder. Now the Pinterest link used bobby pins. We didn't have bobby pins, so we just used little clips all around.

It's easy enough and has been good about staying in place. I think I'll fold the sock over more so the bun doesn't stick out as far next time.

I still want to get more "screws" before The Nutcracker, but this way is working just fine in the meantime.



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"Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop---Curriculum Week (Part 2)

I couldn't finish everything I wanted to share on Tuesday, so today is part 2 of my "Not" Back-to-School Blog Hop Curriculum Week!  On Tuesday, I covered readin', writin', and 'rithmetic.  Today, I'm covering my electives.

History

Mija really enjoys history. I think it's because we teach it chronologically. That is why we have used The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child. I know that some are concerned because there can be a slight humanistic twinge to it, but I can more than bring God into His-tory on my own. I also am thankful for The Story of the World Activity Book . It helps me not have to re-invent the wheel. It has activities, review items, and even lists of books to go along with each chapter.  That's really important to me because I don't want mija to learn merely from a text book but from real books. Having the list makes my time on the library website much faster. (I reserve all the books I want online, so all I have to do it pick them up!)

Science

 I mentioned on Monday, I didn't have a science curriculum available for this year. Well, I was looking through all my downloads, and I came across something I'm going to use. There is a science program entitled, Supercharged Science. It's actually taught by Aurora Lipper, a real rocket scientist! We had signed up for a trial period of her program and while a member I downloaded a lot of her things! I have enough to definitely cover this year although I won't have access to her cool videos. So, between my downloads and the library, I think we have science covered.
Every so often, Aurora Lipper does FREE teleclass.  She has one coming up on Wednesday, August 15 at noon Pacific time.  We usually try to attend even if it's not a subject we are currently covering because she's great, it counts as hours, and did I mention it was Free? Here's the link to sign up for this upcoming teleclass on chemistry.

Bible

Bible really isn't just an elective. It permeates everything we do. While I have my eye on some "official" curriculum, we can't afford it write now, so these are some things we are using.

First, Awana. In case you don't know what Awana is, it is a Scripture memory program that gives prizes and awards for what the child accomplishes. Our church offers Awana. She attends the meetings and then we work on the verses at home.

Second. We've been using Lorrie Flem's Artists and Authors. I won't tell you  much about it right now because I'm going to be doing a review in a few weeks!

Art and Music and More

I don't have a regular curriculum with the subjects. I often integrate them with history or holidays. For instance, we're going to be learning about what was happening in Holland during the Protestant revolutions. We're going to learn about Rembrandt then! Free concert at the library. Music credit. If I can score a free piano, we'll start that again. Mija also does ballet. I count that as Performance Art although I probably could count as PE if I wanted to do. 

Latin

Yes, we are going to start Latin this year, but I'm planning on taking it slow and easy. Something I had purchased previously to use for this eventual even is Prima Latina. Haven't used it before. Seems simple enough. We'll see how it goes.  Why Latin? Because we follow the Classical Method, of course! There's more to it than that. Latin is the basis of a great deal of our English language thereby helping with spelling and learning the meanings of new words. It's also the basis of all the Latin languages which gives you a head up in learning them. (Although I don't think I'll ever understand French. There are just too many unspoken letters. Why put them there if you're not going to say them? Huh?)

So there you are. That's the basics of what I'm using this year.  Have you used any of them? Would you recommend them or something else?

A little "nuts" after The Nutcracker

Well, we have finished our big "Nutcracker" weekend. We will have one more performance next weekend.

 I notice I wrote "we". Sure mija danced her heart out, but I was backstage supervising costume changes, and making sure knees didn't get dirty, performers are on stage on time, and dancers are entertained and fed while not on stage.

Mija's dance school did two school performances on Friday and THREE public performances on Saturday.  The "official" Kansas City Ballet only do two performances each Saturday, so our kids are troopers!

Here are some highlights from my weekend.

Besides performing, wearing makeup is a big deal.  Also, smiling now includes making sure people can tell that I'm missing two teeth!


Snowbird

  Killing time while playing with Barbie dolls that she's not allowed to have at home.  Pretty much everyone just brings toys to share with all.


Hamming it up backstage.

But she did have her times onstage as well.

 

Everyone loves the buffoons.  Mija got to come out from under the mother's skirt this year!

It was also cool, because in the performance we watched, Clara and the prince were played by a homeschooling brother and sister!

We had to make sure to get a picture with her teacher Miss Sarah, and her mother, Mrs. Ames who owns the Ballet Conservatory.

The Kansas City Star actually had a nice article about Mrs. Ames and our Nutcracker HERE just go down to "Another Nutcracker."

If you're interested in adding "The Nutcracker" into your curriculum this December, you might get some ideas from  The Ballet Conservatory's curriculum link.

After one more performance next week, we'll purchase our nutcracker for the year.  Then we'll dream of sugar plum fairies until next year!